Proms 2022 Prom 25: Shostakovich’s Last Symphony and a Concerto for Theremin

Imagine pulling music out of thin air. Two living Finnish masters do just that today: Kaija Saariaho felt that ‘new music was flowing into my mind’ as she drove by night along the coast of California. Kalevi Aho, meanwhile, turned to the eight seasons of Lapland’s Sámi culture in his extraordinary concerto for the theremin. ‘The soloist is like a magician, a weaver of spells,’ he says – ‘producing music without touching the instrument at all.’ Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 inhabits a much darker world, but there’ll be mystery too, as well as humour, when John Storgårds conducts the enigmatic final symphony of one of the 20th century’s supreme musical chroniclers.

Image: John Storgårds © Marco Borggreve